Zebra Technologies unveils ARM mbed IoT Starter Kit

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This new IoT Starter Kit uses an Atmel | SMART Xplained board.

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In collaboration with ARM, Zebra Technologies has developed an ARM mbed Starter Kit for Zatar, an IoT platform for enterprise applications. Powered by an Atmel | SMART Xplained board, the IoT Starter Kit will enable simple, standards-based cloud connectivity for creating next-generation, Internet-aware products integrated with Zatar.

As enterprises are committing to large IoT initiatives, they often require a simple, inexpensive and standards-based artifact to begin development. To provide such a “thing,” ARM mbed IoT Starter Kit for Zatar is a ready-made reference design to rapidly spur apps like enterprise asset management, as well as build and release futuristic concepts into production.

“The IoT is here. To accelerate enterprise adoption, developers and device manufacturers require IoT kits that make it easy to prototype and develop IoT products. We are happy to work with leaders like ARM and Atmel to rapidly widen the appeal of IoT, with the kit our partners and customers can use to easily start building products and solutions on Zatar,” explains Phil Gerskovich, SVP New Growth Platforms at Zebra Technologies.

The kit will leverage the ARM mbed IoT Device Platform, including mbed OS, and provide a full stack with Wi-Fi connectivity, security and enterprise-grade cloud integration for product developers to use. What’s more, it will enable anyone creating enterprise IoT products to reduce development time and decrease expenses, with the standards-based reference design that integrates right into Zatar.

The IoT Starter Kit will use the Atmel SAM W25 Xplained PRO prototyping and evaluation platform consisting of a pre-configured Atmel | SMART ARM MCU dev board — featuring ARM Cortex processors, a fully integrated Wi-Fi network controller and an expansion port to a collection of add-on boards for functionalities such as sensors and user I/O interfaces.

“This Wi-Fi-based IoT platform kit is a great example of a system-level, edge-node solution that simplifies the complexities associated with cloud connectivity and provides IoT product developers an easy-to-use development platform that supports a wide range of IoT devices and security requirements,” says Steve Pancoast, Atmel VP Software Applications, Tools and Development. “We are pleased to team up with Zebra and ARM to enable more designers to quickly bring their IoT products to market.”

A prototype of the IoT Starter Kit will be displayed at the Zebra booth at Maker Faire Bay Area, where developers and product designers can register for early access.

Zymbit unveils its pre-configured hardware and software IoT platform

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Zymbit launches the first pre-configured hardware software platform for building, connecting and publishing IoT projects.

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To kick off Maker Week, Zymbit has unveiled the first three products within its integrated Internet of Things (IoT) suite: the Zymbit Orange edge device, the Zymbit Iris interactive display and Zymbit Connect software. As previously discussed on Bits & Pieces, the platform is the first pre-configured hardware and software solution that is a finished, secure, out-of-the-box-ready product allowing seriously creative Makers and developers to get their connected prototypes off their desk and into the market in just days, not months.

“Like the motherboard was to personal computing, Zymbit Orange is to the IoT market,” said Phil Strong, CEO of Zymbit.  “We’re giving Makers the first pre-packaged hardware and software platform built upon open components, so they can skip the painful prototype stage and start acquiring real world data and publishing it securely in a day. Zymbit takes care of the tough technology problems freeing seriously creative people to focus on bringing their IoT ideas to market quickly.”

The newly-revealed platform is comprised of three components:

• Connectivity software simplifies the connection and sharing of secured data and the management of remote devices. Its service enables users to SSH to their gadgets, whether they are on a desk or across the country. Publishing through Zymbit’s Pub/Sub Engine lets Makers collect and share data one-to-one or one-to-many, with or without subscriber authentication.

• Orange hardware makes it super easy to customize and interact at the edge of the network for data acquisition and new user interfaces by integrating all essential functions onto a single, Atmel packed motherboard. This includes an Atmel | SMART SAM L21 CPU for device authentication, power and communications, a SAM D21 MCU for I/O applications, an ATECC508 crypto engine for enhanced security and an ATWINC1500 Wi-Fi controller. Ideal for those creating next-gen projects, the modular board is compatible with Atmel Xplained Pro wingboards, Arduino shields, Raspberry Pi B+, as well as ZigBee, cellular and POE options.

• Iris offers a new way to interact with the Internet and physical world through color, touch and scale. This unit features one 128×64 OLED display, four 96×48 OLED soft keys and a 9×9 LED matrix with a fully-equipped RGB perimeter to indicate high-level conditions.

What’s nice is that Zymbit eases the complexity of getting an idea to market by leveraging open technology (such as the incredibly popular Arduino, Raspberry Pi and Linux), open developer communities (GitHub), and open application communities to encourage the quick expansion of smart ideas and products.

At the moment, the Santa Barbara-based startup is devising an open architecture product with enough flexibility to be suitable for most applications, from a single installation to a global deployment. Meanwhile, with the emergence of more connected gizmos and gadgets, security remains a less visible but very real barrier to mass IoT adoption. In an effort to combat these worries, Zymbit addresses privacy with a multi-level security architecture that includes silicon, hardware and software.

In line with their announcement, the company has also launched a contest to find the top five most inspiring and impactful IoT projects. Makers are encouraged to post their concepts to the Zymbit website, while the selected winners will each receive the first five Zymbit Orange devices to scale their projects.

Interested? Head over to Zymbit’s official site to learn more, and don’t forget to come swing by our Maker Faire Bay Area booth for a hands-on demo of the platform.

Building a realtime temperature sensor with Atmel and PubNub

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PubNub’s Bhavana Srinivas demonstrates how to build a realtime temperature sensor with PubNub and Atmel.

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With the buzzword being Internet of Things (IoT), PubNub recently wanted to build something simple, yet powerful, that could extend beyond the hackerspace and be applied to the real world. It had to combine software and hardware, and allow people at home to build it and try it themselves.

Arduino came to mind, but seeing as though the team has already written a great deal of realtime tutorials using the Arduino board, they sought out to try something a bit different. Instead, the group decided upon employing Atmel | SMART SAM D21 Xplained Pro and PubNub to devise a realtime temperature sensor.

Project Overview

The Atmel temperature sensor monitors temperatures and streams the data to a live-updating dashboard, in realtime, anywhere in the world. The temperature sensor measures the ambient temperature and publishes it as a data stream to a channel via the PubNub Data Stream Network. A web browser that subscribes to this channel displays the data stream on a live visualization dashboard.

The Concept

• The Atmel I/O1 Xplained Pro sensor measures the ambient temperature.
• This connects to the Wi-Fi using the ATWINC1500 module.
• The PubNub code running on the Atmel chip enabled the team to publish the temperature in realtime to anyone subscribing to the same channel as a data stream.
• Through the PubNub Developer Console, you can receive this stream of information from as many sensors as you like in realtime.

What Will You Need?

Hardware

• ATSAMD21-XPRO host MCU board
• OLED 1 Xplained Pro to provide the display on the chip
• I/O1 Xplained Pro for sensor and SD-card input to host MCU
• ATWINC1500 module. This is a Wi-Fi black box that contains the Wi-Fi stack, the TCP stack and the TLS stack.

Software

• Windows PC
• To get your unique pub/sub keys, you’ll first need to sign up for a PubNub account. Once you sign up, you can get your unique PubNub keys in the PubNub Developer Dashboard. PubNub’s free Sandbox tier should give you all the bandwidth you need to build and test your messaging app with the web messaging API.
• Install Atmel Studio 6.2
• Install updates to Atmel Studio as suggested during installation
• Install terminal software like putty or teraterm

A prerequisite is that you upgrade the firmware for SAMD21 using the .bat file provided with the PubNub Atmel example before you run this demo. Make sure no other software like putty or teraterm is using the com port). Close Atmel Studio and the putty terminal. The firmware upgrade is successful if you see a PASS sign on the terminal after running the code.

Connecting the Hardware, the Right Way

• Connect WINC1500 XPRO board to SAMD21 XPRO connector EXT1
• Connect I/O1 XPRO board to SAMD21 XPRO connector EXT2
• Connect OLED1 XPRO board to SAMD21 XPRO connector EXT3
• Connect SAMD21 XPRO to a free USB port on your PC (make sure no other USB port on your PC is in use)
• Connect the power to the port that says “DEBUG USB”

The Software

Open the PubNub example: pubnubAtmel/PubNub_EXAMPLE.atsln (included in the code download) in Atmel Studio and you will see the following page. Make sure you choose the debugger/programmer and interface as shown below.

Include the following lines in pubnubAtmel/src/main.h:

123	#define TEST_MODE_SSID “Enter-your-SSID” (choose THE Wi-Fi access point you want the chip to connect to) #define TEST_MODE_PASSWORD “Enter-the password-for-the-SSID” (enter the password for the same Wi-Fi connection) #define TEST_MODE_WITHOUT_PROVISION

In pubnubAtmel/src/main.c, add the channel name and pub, sub keys.

Build (F7 / Build -> build solution), run(continue/ green arrow/ F5/ debug -> continue).

Open PubNub Developer Console, use the same channel name and pub,sub keys as in the code and SUBSCRIBE.If all is well, you should see a constant stream of messages in the following format: {“columns”:[[“temperature”,”55.00″]]}

From there, the PubNub crew was able to collect and stream temperature data in realtime. But what’s next, you ask? Well, they needed to do something with that data, right? Visualize it!

Visualizing the Data Stream

Bhavana and the PubNub bunch didn’t just want to display raw data off the sensor as a live-updating number; instead, their partner-in-crime Tomomi built the beautiful temperature visualization, which mocks nursery or greenhouse monitor (a typical realworld use case for realtime temperature sensors).

The interface runs in the browser, and the technology behind is quite simple, using PubNub JavaScript APIs to subscribe the data sent from the Atmel chip. It’s simple, lightweight, built entirely in JavaScript, and accessible from anywhere in the world with any kind of device – mobile phones, tablets, and any smart device, as long as you have a web browser. The main purpose behind this is to present information in most efficient manner without losing its accuracy.

In this scenario, the UI shows the current temperature, also a simple line graph, updating in realtime so that you can tell the relative changes of the temperature, raising and dropping. This particular data is simple, but when you have multiple, more complicated data, data visualization plays more crucial role.

Go Conquer IoT

This demo is read-only and reads the ambient temperature, but in reality, you want to develop products that lets your users monitor and control, i.e, bidirectional communication between devices. For instance, if you have a smart A/C, not only monitoring the current room temperature, but you need to make it controllable from a remote devices.

“With the power of PubNub APIs, you can achieve this with no hassle. I hope I am leaving you guys with enough excitement to try this demo out, and also build cooler ones,” Bhavana concludes.

In the meantime, be sure to follow our friends at PubNub and Bhavana Srinivas on Twitter!

A sneak peek into Maker Week

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And so, the road to Maker Faire begins! Here’s a closer look at what you can expect from Atmel all week. 

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Maker Faire season is officially underway and we’re just days out from the 10th annual flagship event here in the Bay Area. In 2014, we saw more than 1,100 Makers and 130,000 attendees pack the San Mateo Event Center for two days of innovation, with countless visitors flocking our booth and congregating around other Atmel-driven projects. And rightfully so, as we continue to remain at the heart of the Maker community, powering everything from highly-popular Arduino boards to 3D printers to open-source robots.

Testament to that, we have plenty of demos, discussions and more planned for the days leading up to and during Maker Faire Bay Area. Here’s a rundown of who and what you can expect to see in the coming week!

MakerCon, Tuesday May 12-13th, Palace of Fine Arts

MakerCon is a conference by and for the leaders of the Maker Movement. This event examines the impact of DIY culture on local and global manufacturing, design, workforce development and education, as well as provides valuable, practical insights around its role in the science, business and technology fields.

With the emergence of easy-to-use boards like Arduino, a growing number of Makers are producing systems faster than ever before, dramatically reducing costs and headaches often associated with starting a product. However, once a DIYer is ready to promote their projects for funding or potential commercialization, how can they generate the awareness and attention required for success? In response to that common conundrum, Sander Arts will explore how to take a project from a mere idea to mass market as part of the conference’s Marketplace breakout session on Wednesday, May 13th at 3:30pm PT. In his presentation, Atmel’s VP of Marketing will address how entrepreneurs can go from ‘Makerspace to Marketplace,’ turning their Maker-board prototype into a viable business through digital marketing platforms.

AVR Freaks Meetup, Thursday, May 14, San Mateo Marriott

What do Arduino, MakerBot, 3D Robotics, Sphero and other major names throughout the Maker Movement all have in common? They began with on an AVR microcontroller. After all, it’s no wonder everyone from hobbyists to aspiring entrepreneurs have turned to the versatile family of 8- and 32-bit MCUs to bring their creations to life. Paying homage to its legacy within the DIY community, Atmel is bringing together these likeminded tinkerers, Makers, and most importantly, AVR fans for an inaugural pre-Maker Faire AVR Freak Meetup. Participants will have the opportunity to hop aboard the Tech on Tour big rig and get their hands on the latest and greatest projects from avid AVR users, enthusiasts and loyalists, in addition to mingle with Atmel’s own esteemed panel of experts, snap a selfie with AVR Man and pick up some swag. Oh, and in case that wasn’t enough, AVR Freak at heart Massimo Banzi will be in attendance, too.

Beyond that, attendees will also have the opportunity to sign up for a Lunch n’ Learn training session, which will guide participants into becoming an “Atmel MCU Designer in One Hour” at 11am PT. Seats are limited, and yes, registration is required!

FRIDAY@MakerFaire, Friday, May 15, San Mateo Event Center

New to the program this year is exclusive, early access to show (and tell) from 1pm to 7pm PT. FRIDAY@MakerFaire is designed specifically for supporters and advocates of the Maker Movement to get focused time with Makers ahead of the DIY craziness that is Maker Faire Saturday and Sunday. This is a ticketed event for attendees interested in taking advantage of the preview opportunity. 

Maker Faire, Saturday and Sunday, May 16-17, San Mateo Event Center

Maker Faire is a gathering of fascinating, curious people who enjoy learning and sharing what they can do. It’s a venue for Makers to exhibit examples of their work and interact with others about it, while in a dynamic setting. Now in its 10th year, this flagship event will be home to thousands of projects, a number of which driven by an Atmel MCU. During the two-day show, visitors will be able to get a firsthand look at some of the Makers who’ve successfully taken their idea from the ‘Makerspace to Marketplace’ inside the Atmel booth (#2223), including:

Arduino

Probably doesn’t warrant much of an introduction. It’s Arduino, come on! This open-source electronics platform is smack dab in the middle of the Maker Movement.

Qtechknow

The question is, what can’t this 14-year-old innovator do? Aside from changing the world one board at a time, CEO Quin Etnyre has already taught classes at MIT, received multitudinous awards, partook in White House Maker Faire, and recently launched a successful Kickstarter campaign for the Qduino Mini.

Zymbit

The Internet of Things represents a compelling opportunity across a staggering array of applications, and as more devices become connected, development time will play an increasingly integral role. Fortunately, Zymbit provides a unique, pre-packaged hardware and software IoT solution that not only allows Makers to customize, add and modify their projects, but bring those gizmos and gadgets to market in days, not months.

DrumPants

Ever catch yourself drumming on your pant leg? Your table? Your desk? Your steering wheel? Well good news, starting a one-man band is now as simple as wearing DrumPants. Dubbed by its creators Tyler Freeman and Lei Yu as “the world’s industrial quality wearable musical instrument,” the kit magically transforms your outfit into a full ensemble with over 100 high-quality sounds and 300 music apps.

littleBits

Like the LEGO and Tinkertoys of the tech-savvy generation, littleBits is open-source library of electronic modules that snap together with magnets, enabling Makers to learn electronics via prototypes. The library currently has over 60 modules, ranging from Arduino to MP3 to cloud bits. The best part? Each interchangeable board works with one another to spark up millions of possible combinations.

1Sheeld

1Sheeld is a configurable shield for Arduino boards that lets users replace their other shields by using smartphone features, such as its display, gyroscope, accelerometer, magnetometer, GSM, Wi-Fi and GPS. The system is comprised of two parts: a shield that physically connects to an Arduino and acts as a wireless middleman, transmitting data between the board and any Android smartphone via Bluetooth, and an Android app that manages the communication between the shield and the mobile device.

Zippy Robotics

Zippy Robotics enables users to construct circuit boards, arts and crafts, mechanical parts and other working prototypes righ from their desk through a computer-controlled carving machine called Prometheus.

Wait… There’s More!

On Saturday at 3pm PT, Atmel’s resident Wi-Fi expert Pierre Roux will join representatives from ARM, littleBits and MAKE to delve deeper into the “Connectivity, Creativity and Challenges” of the Internet of Things. Shortly after, the one and only Wizard of Make Bob Martin will conduct an on-stage demonstration on how to debug an Arduino board. This training session will take place Saturday at 6:30pm PT.

Stay Connected

Be sure to follow along with us on Twitter as we bring you all of the latest happenings from throughout the week. For those attending and looking to have their project featured on the Atmel social channels, tweet us to set up an interview! Unable to attend? No need to worry, we’ll also be live-streaming via Periscope — or something that we like to call #Fairescope!

Zymbit wants to accelerate IoT development

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Get your real-world Internet of Things ideas to market in days, not months. 

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As the next frontier of the Internet approaches, the IoT represents a compelling opportunity across a staggering array of applications. That’s why the team behind Zymbit has developed an end-to-end platform of hardware and software devices that will enable Makers, engineers and developers alike to transform their ideas into real-world products in blistering speed.

In an effort to deliver secure, open and interactive gadgets for our constantly-connected era, Zymbit is hoping that latest set of solutions will help accelerate adoption and interface with our physical world in a more secure, authenticated manner. The company — who we had the chance to meet at CES 2015 and will be on display in our Maker Faire booth — recently unveiled its Zymbit 1 (Z1), which is being billed as the first fully-integrated piece of IoT hardware that provide users with local and remote live data interaction, along with a low-power MCU, battery-backed operation.

“Z1’s motherboards incorporate some of the latest secure silicon from Atmel, providing accelerated processing of standard open security algorithms. A separate supervisor MPU takes care of security, while you take care of your application,” explained Zymbit CTO Alex Kaay.

Based on the Atmel | SMART SAM D21, the Z1 motherboard is electronically robust with enhanced security provided via an ATECC108 crypto engine and an ATWINC1500 Wi-Fi controller — meaning, no additional parts are necessary. Ideal for those developing next-gen IoT projects, the modular board is super customizable and compatible with Atmel Xplained Pro wingboards, Arduino shields, Raspberry Pi B+, as well as ZigBee, cellular and POE options. The Zymbit team has even implemented discretely controlled blocks to simplify coding and to secure remote device management, while advanced power management supports battery, solar and POE operations.

The Z1 integrates all of the key components required to support a generation of global IoT applications. This includes easily transitioning between Arduino, Atmel and Raspberry Pi designs, integrated open software tools for seamless innovation, as well as a choice of wireless communication. For instance, Makers can design and implement their programs using the Zymbit’s Arduino Zero app processor and take advantage of a vast number of Arduino shields. Or, developers can connect their Raspberry Pi to utilize the various Zymbit services via SPI bus, allowing their B+ module to interact with a wide-range of “things.”

The unique Zymbit architecture delivers three key pillars of security: authenticated data source with 72-bit ID serial number, protected data transmission with SHA 256 and private data transmission via a Wi-Fi embedded AES engine. This is accomplished through a dedicated hardware crypto engine that ensures only trusted data is exchanged between devices.

At the heart of Z1’s operation lies a network/Linux CPU, the Atmel | SMART SAMA5D4 MPU, tasked with its secure communication. Meanwhile, its security processes run within a supervisory, ultra low-power Atmel | SMART SAM L21 MCU, separately from its SAM D21 Cortex-M0+ I/O application MCU. This hardware is all housed inside a dynamically-constructed case, which features standard expansions and mounts perfect for any consumer, commercial or industrial applicable IoT product.

Adding to its already impressive list of capabilities, Zymbit comes with a remote manager that makes it easy to connect and manage gizmos both securely and with transparency. This service enables users to SSH to their devices, whether they are on your desk or across the country. Publishing through Zymbit’s Pub/Sub Engine lets developers collect and share data one-to-one or one-to-many, with or without subscriber authentication. As you can imagine, this opens up an assortment of project possibilities, which range from changing Philips Hue color lighting with data streams to monitoring key parameters of a refrigeration system.

“We are providing some standard dashboard widgets that allow you to quickly view your device performance metrics and data-channels. Initially we are supporting time series charting, together with plugin metrics for Raspberry Pi, and Arduino Yún,” the team writes.

Interested in learning more? You can stay up-to-date with the Zymbit team’s progress here, watch our latest interview with one of the company’s co-founders below, and swing by our booth at Maker Faire Bay Area!

10 (+1) invaluable steps to launching your next IoT product

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Let’s transition your products from a ‘dumb’ to ‘smart’ thing.

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Many enterprises, startups and organizations have already been exposed to the innovation land grab stemming from the rapidly evolving Internet of Things (IoT). What’s available in the product/market fit arena? This is the hunt to cease some segment of the multi-trillion dollar growth reported to gain from the IoT, enabling embedded system connectivity coupled with the ecosystem value-add of a product or service. Even for that matter, transforming a mere idea that centers around connectivity solutions can present an array of challenges, particularly when one seeks to bring to market disruptive ways for the end-user to adopt from the more traditional way of doing things (e.g. GoPro, PebbleWatch, FitBit, and even to as far as e-health monitors, tire subscriptions, self-driving vehicles, smart bracelets, connected medical apparatus or Industrial Internet devices, home automation systems and more).

All together, there’s one overlaying theme to these Internet-enabled products. They are all pervasively SMART technologies that help monetize the IoT. Now, let’s get your products to transition from a once ordinary, mundane object to a much smarter, more secure “thing.” When doing so, this too can often present a few obstacles for designers, especially as it requires a unique set of skills needed to interface systems with connectivity to the cloud or Internet.

To top it all off, there may already be various product lines in existence that have a mandate to leverage a connected ecosystem/design. In fact, even new ones require connectivity to the cloud, having designs set forth to enhance via customer usage then combining this user data with other associated data points. Already, the development to enable such devices require an assortment of skills. It’s an undertaking, one in which requires knowledge and expertise to command stable connectivity in the infrastructure and design a product with security, scalability, and low power.

Moving ahead, here are some recommendations developers and Makers should know:

1. Identify a need and market: The value of the smart device lies in in the service that it brings to the customer. Identify the need to develop a strong offer that brings value or enhances efficiency rather than creating a simple gadget. (See Marc Andreesen’s infamous blog on product/market fit for more tips).

2. Validate your ideation: Carry out market research. Do your due diligence. Determine whether the device you think of creating already exists. Can improvements be ascertained with testimonial as an enhanced or unique experience? Indeed, benchmarking will allow you to discover any competitors, find sources of inspiration, develop a network of ideas to pool and find other areas for improvement as well.

3. Prototype toward MVP: New device fabrication techniques, such as 3D printing, are the ideal creative validation for producing prototypes much faster and for less money. They also promote iteration, which is an integral process when designing the device towards MVP.

4. Connect the ‘thing’ then concert it into a smart ‘thing:’ Right now, there is no mandatory standard for interconnecting different devices. Selecting the right technology is essential, particularly if the device requires low-power (speaking of low-power….) and event and state controls, which highly optimize extended power and the services to enrich the information system and eventally enhance user experience with a roadmap toward an ecosystem.

5. Develop the application: Today, the primary smart devices are linked to an dedicated mobile app. Since the app transforms the smartphone into a remote control, it must be be easy to use for your end-users, and more importantly, simply upgraded via the cloud.

6. Manage the data: Fitted with a multitude of sensors, connected gadgets generate an enormous amount of data that need to be processed and stored with the utmost security across all layers even to as far as using cryptography in memory. (After all, you don’t want your design become a ‘Tales from the Crypt-O” horror story.) 

7. Analyze and exploit the data: By processing and analyzing the data, a company can extract the necessary information to deploy the right service in the right place at the right time.

8. Measure the impact of the smart device: Set up probes to monitor your devices and data traffic quality. Answer questions objectively as to how it would securely scale and evolve should there be an instant high volume success and usage. This will help you measure the impact of the smart device in real time and adapt its actions accordingly, and model into the product roadmap and MVP spec.

9. Iterate to fine-tune the device’s use: After launching the project, the process has only begun. Feedback needs to be taken into account in order to adjust and fine-tune the project. Due to its very nature, digital technology requires continuous adaptation and iteration. “Try and learn” and present riskier ideas to products are the fundamental principles behind transformation when imposing a new use.

10. Prototype again: Continuous adaptation and iteration means that your company needs to produce a new prototype.

Here’s 10 + 1 invaluable steps to launching your IoT project or product.

11. Take advantage of the hands-on training in your region.

As an application space, IoT sensor nodes are enabled by a number of fundamental technologies, namely a low-power MCU, some form of wireless communication and strong security. With this in mind, the newly revealed Atmel IoT Secure Hello World series will offer attendees hands-on training, introducing them to some of the core technologies making the Internet of Things possible, including Wi-Fi and CryptoAuthentication.

What’s more, these sessions will showcase Atmel’s diverse Wi-Fi capabilities and CryptoAuthentication hardware key storage in the context of the simplest possible use cases. This includes learning how to send temperature information to any mobile device via a wireless network and how to enable the remote control of LEDs on a SAM D21 Xplained Pro board over a Wi-Fi network using a WINC1500. In addition, attendees will explore authentication of IoT nodes, as well as how to implement a secure communications link — something that will surely come in handy when preparing to launch your next smart product.

As you can see, so far, everyone is LOVING the Hello World sessions — from hardcore embedded engineers to hobbyists. Here some recent social activity following the recent Tech on Tour events in both Manchester and Heathrow, UK. Need we say more? These tweets say a thousand words!

Connected and ready to go… all before lunch! (Yes, there’s food as well!)

 

Atmel’s Tech on Tour and proud partner EBV Elektronik proudly thankful for the successful event in Manchester, UK.

 

Atmel’s Tech on Tour just successfully completed a full house attendance training in Manchester, UK

 

BLE, WIFI, IoT, IOE, ToT, OMG! How does Big Bang Theory and IoT relate to Tech on Tour?

Find out how you too can receive in-depth IoT training. As the Atmel | Tech on Tour makes it way throughout Europe, Asia, and North America, make sure you know when the team arrives in your town!  Don’t miss it. Upon registering, you will even receive a WINC1500 Xplained Pro Starter Kit to take home.

What is real SAM V71 DSP performance in automotive audio?

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The integrated FPU DSP (into the Cortex-M7 core) is using 2X the number of clock cycles when compared with the SHARC21489.

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Thinking of selecting an ARM Cortex-M7-based Atmel SAM V70/71 for your next automotive entertainment application? Three key reasons to consider are the clock speed of the the Cortex-M7 (300 Mhz), the integration of a floating point (FPU) DSP, and last but not least, because the SAM V70/71 has obtained automotive qualification. If you delve deeper into the SAM V70/71 features list, you will see that this MCU is divided into several versions integrating Flash: 512 KB, 1024 KB or 2018 KB. And, if you compare with the competition, this MCU is the only Cortex-M7 supporting the 2 MB Flash option, being automotive qualified and delivering 1500 CoreMark — thanks to the 300 MHz clock speed when the closest competitor only reach 240 MHz and deliver 1200 CoreMark.

In fact, what makes the SAMV70/71 so unique is its FPU DSP performance. Let’s make it clear for the beginning, if you search for pure DSP performance, it will be easy to find standard DSP chip offering much higher performance. Take the Analog Device AD21489 or Blackfin70x series, for example. However, the automotive market is not only very demanding, it’s also a very cost sensitive market as well.

Think about this simple calculation: If you select AD21489 DSP, you will have to add external flash and a MCU, which would lead the total BOM to be four to five times the price associated with the SAM V71. (Let’s also keep this AD21489 as a reference in terms of performance, and examine DSP benchmark results, coming from third party DSP experts DSP Concept.)

Before analyzing the results, we need to describe the context:

• FIR is made on 256 samples block size
• Results are expressed in term of clock cycles (smaller is better)
• All DSP are floating-point except Blackfin
• Clock cycles count is measured using Audio Weaver

To elaborate upon that even further, this FIR is used to build equalization filter — the higher Taps count, the better. If we look at the “50 Taps” benchmark results, the SAM V71 (Cortex-M7 based) exhibits 22,734 clock cycles (about three times more than the SHARC21489). Unsurprisingly, the Cortex-M4 requires 50% more, but you have to integrate a Cortex-A15 to get better results, as both the Cortex-A8 and Cortex-A9 need 30% and 40% more cycles, respectively! And when looking at standard Analog Devices Blackfin DSP, only the 70x series is better by 35%… the 53x being 30% worst.

Now, if you want to build a graphic equalizer, you will have to run Biquad. For instance, when building eight channels and six stages graphic equalizer, your DSP will have to run 48 Biquad.

Again, the context:

• Biquad is made on 256 samples block size
• Results are expressed in term of clock cycles (smaller is better)
• All DSP are floating-point except Blackfin
• Clock cycles count is measured using Audio Weaver

In fact, the results are quite similar to those of the FIR benchmark: only the Cortex-A15 and the SHARC21489 exhibits better performance. The integrated FPU DSP (into the Cortex-M7 core) is using twice the amount of clock cycles when put side-by-side with the SHARC21489. If you compare the performance per price, the Cortex-M7 integrated in the SAMV71 is 50% cheaper! Using a SHARC DSP certainly makes sense if you want to build high performance home cinema system, but if you target automotive, it’s much more effective to select a FPU DSP integrated together with Flash (512KB to 2MB) and a full featured MCU.

The Atmel SAM V71 is specifically dedicated to support automotive infotainment application, offering Dual CAN and Ethernet MAC support. Other notable specs include:

• 10/100 Mbps, IEEE1588 support
• 12 KB SRAM plus DMA
• AVB support with Qav & Qas HW support for audio traffic support
• 802.3az Energy efficiency support
• Dual CAN-FD
• Up to 64 SRAM-based mailboxes
• Wake up from sleep or wake up modes on RX/TX

Don’t forget that when looking to construct an automotive high-end radio, you still need room for Ethernet MAC and AVB support… What’s more, the SAM V71 only consume 68% of the DSP resource, leaving well enough space for both AVB and Ethernet MAC.

Interested? Explore the Atmel | SMART SAM V ARM Cortex-M7 family here. More information about the the DSP benchmark can be also found on DSP Concept’s website.  Also, be sure the detailed DSP Concept’s audio processing benchmarks.

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This post has been republished with permission from SemiWiki.com, where Eric Esteve is a principle blogger as well as one of the four founding members of SemiWiki.com. This blog first appeared on SemiWiki on May 6, 2015.

Single chip MCU + DSP architecture for automotive = SAM V71

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Automotive apps are running in production by million units per year, and cost is a crucial factor when deciding on an integrated solution.

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It’s all about Cost of Ownership (CoO) and system level integration. If you target automotive related application, like audio or video processing or control of systems (Motor control, inverter, etc.), you need to integrate strong performance capable MCU with a DSP. In fact, if you expect your system to support Audio Video Bridging (AVB) MAC on top of the targeted application and to get the automotive qualification, the ARM Cortex-M7 processor-based Atmel SAMV70/71 should be your selection: offering the fastest clock speed of his kind (300 MHz), integrating a DSP Floating Point Unit (FPU), supporting AVB and qualified for automotive.

Let’s have a closer look at the SAM V71 internal architecture, shall we?

A closer look at Atmel | SMART ARM based Cortex M7 – SAMV71 internal architecture.

When developing a system around a microcontroller unit, you expect this single chip to support as many peripherals as needed in your application to minimize the global cost of ownership. That’s why you can see the long list of system peripherals (top left of the block diagram). Meanwhile, the Atmel | SMART SAM V71 is dedicated to support automotive infotainment application, e.g. Dual CAN and Ethernet MAC (bottom right). If we delve deeper into these functions, we can list these supported features:

• 10/100 Mbps, IEEE1588 support
• MII (144-pin), RMII (64-, 100, 144-pin)
• 12 KB SRAM plus DMA
• AVB support with Qav & Qas HW support for Audio traffic support
• 802.3az Energy efficiency support
• Dual CAN-FD
• Up to 64 SRAM-based mailboxes
• Wake up from sleep or wake up modes on RX/TX

The automotive-qualified SAM V70 and V71 series also offers high-speed USB with integrated PHY and Media LB, which when combined with the Cortex-M7 DSP extensions, make the family ideal for infotainment connectivity and audio applications. Let’s take a look at this DSP benchmark:

ARM CM7 Performance normalized relative to SHARC (Higher numbers are better).

If you are not limited by budget consideration and can afford integrating one standard DSP along with a MCU, you will probably select the SHARC 21489 DSP (from Analog Devices) offering the best-in-class benchmark results for FIR, Biquad and real FFT. However, such performance has a cost, not only monetarily but also in terms of power consumption and board footprint — we can call that “Cost of Ownership.” Automotive apps are running in production by million units per year, and cost is absolutely crucial in this market segment, especially when quickly deciding to go with an integrated solution.

To support audio or video infotainment application, you expect the DSP integrated in the Cortex-M7 to be “good enough” and you can see from this benchmark results that it’s the case for Biquad for example, as ARM CM7 is equal or better than any other DSP (TI C28, Blackfin 50x or 70x) except the SHARC 21489… but much cheaper! Good enough means that the SAMV70 will support automotive audio (Biquad in this case) and keep enough DSP power for Ethernet MAC (10/100 Mbps, IEEE1588) support.

Ethernet AVB Architectures (SAM V71)

In the picture above, you can see the logical SAM V71 architectures for Ethernet AVB support and how to use the DSP capabilities for Telematics Control Unit (TCU) or audio amplifier.

Integrating a DSP means that you need to develop the related DSP code. Because the DSP is tightly integrated into the ARM CM7 core, you may use the MCU development tools (and not specific DSP tools) for developing your code. Since February, the ATSAMV71-XULT (full-featured Xplained board, SAM V71 Xplained Ultra Evaluation Kit with software package drivers supporting basic drivers, software services, libraries for Atmel SAMV71, V70, E70, S70 Cortex-M7 based microcontrollers) is available from Atmel. As this board has been built around the feature-rich SAM V71, you can develop your automotive application on the same exact MCU architecture as the part going into production.

Versatility and Integrated DSP built into the ARM CM7 core allows for MCU development tools to be used instead of having to revert to specific DSP tools. You can develop your automotive application on exactly the same MCU architecture than the part going into production.

Interested? More information on this eval/dev board can found here.

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This post has been republished with permission from SemiWiki.com, where Eric Esteve is a principle blogger as well as one of the four founding members of SemiWiki.com. This blog first appeared on SemiWiki on April 29, 2015.

Atmel and MXCHIP develop Wi-Fi platform with secure cloud access for IoT apps

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SAM G MCU + WILC1000 Wi-Fi SoC + MiCO IoT OS = Secure Cloud Access 

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Atmel and MXCHIP, a top 10 China IoT start-up according to Techno, have announced that the two companies are coming together to develop an ultra-low power Internet of Things (IoT) platform with secure Wi-Fi access to the cloud, enabling designers to quickly bring their connected devices to market. This collaboration combines ultra-low power Atmel | SMART SAM G ARM Cortex-M4-based MCUs and the SmartConnect WILC1000 Wi-Fi solution with MXCHIP’s MiCO IoT operating system, servicing a full range of smart device developers for IoT applications.

“We are excited to team with MXCHIP to bring secure cloud access to IoT developers with this ultra-low power and secure, connected platform,” said Reza Kazerounian, Atmel SVP and General Manager, Microcontroller Business Unit. “In an effort to accelerate the growth of IoT devices, such as wearables and consumer battery-operated devices worldwide, this platform enables embedded designers to focus on their differentiated smart devices without requiring expertise on lowering power consumption, security and wireless connectivity. Our joint efforts will enable more designers of all levels to bring their smart, connected designs quickly to market.”

With the rapid growth of the IoT market, these smart devices will require secure access to the cloud on what will likely be billions of battery-operated devices. The new platform will pair Atmel’s proven ultra-low power SAM G series of MCUs, designed for wearables and sensor hub management, and the secure ultra-low power SmartConnect WILC1000 Wi-Fi solution along with MXCHIP’s leading MiCO IoT OS for next-generation IoT applications. This integrated platform gives IoT designers the confidence that their battery-operated devices will have longer battery life and their data will be securely transferred to the cloud.

The Atmel WILC1000 is an IEEE 802.11b/g/n IoT link controller leveraging its ultra-low power Wi-Fi transceiver with a fully-integrated power amplifier. This solution delivers the industry’s best communication range of up to +20.5dBm output, ideal for connected home devices. Embedded within packages as small as a 3.2mm x 3.2mm WLCSP, the WILC1000 link controller leverages in this platform Atmel’s SAM G MCU, an ideal solution for low-power IoT applications and optimized for lower power consumption, incorporating large SRAM, high performance and operating efficiency with floating-point unit in an industry-leading 2.84mm x 2.84mm package.

When combined with secure Wi-Fi technology, the joint IoT platform connects directly to each other or to a local area network (LAN), enabling remote system monitoring or control. For increased security, the platform comes with an optional Atmel ATECC508A — the industry’s first crypto device to integrate ECDH key agreement, making it easy to add confidentiality to digital systems including IoT nodes used in home automation, industrial networking, accessory and consumable authentication, medical, mobile and other applications.

“This collaboration combines synergies from both companies to IoT designers including Atmel’s global presence with MXCHIP’s local resources enabling IoT designers to smoothly implement cloud services for their smart, connected devices in China and around the world,” said Wang Yong Hong, CEO, MXCHIP. “Our platform combines both ease-of-use and simplicity allowing IoT designers from all levels to access cloud services worldwide ranging from professional designers for smart, connected IoT devices to Makers, educators and hobbyists. We will also collaborate on a number of other fronts with Atmel including IoT research, promotions, and share our IoT knowledge on smart, secure and connected devices across multiple industries.”

Interested? To accelerate the IoT design process, the platform — which will be available in May 2015 — includes the MiCOKit-G55 development kit, technical documentation, application notes and a software development kit.

The 10 challenges of securing IoT communications

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From the very beginning of developing an IoT product, IoT security must be a forethought.

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One of the hottest topics at last week’s IoT StreamConf was security. In other words, how are we going to secure communication for billions of connected devices? How can we ensure that attackers can’t take control of our devices, steal information, disrupt services, or take down entire networks of expensive, imperative devices?

With IoT is still in its early stages, security is not fully understood and well-defined when compared to other industries, like the financial and e-commerce sectors. From the very beginning of developing an IoT product, whether it’s small-scale like a wearable device, to massive-scale IoT deployments, like an oil field sensor network or global delivery operation, IoT security must be a forethought.

In this talk, Rohini Pandhi, Product Manager at PubNub, walks through the ten challenges of securing Internet of Things communication. Rohini discusses flexible and secure messaging design patterns for IoT communication, and how they can be implemented and scaled. There are a number of security considerations, but after watching this talk, you should have a good idea of how you can secure your IoT deployment.

(Scroll below video for a table of contents of when individual concepts are talked about in the video).

Video Table of Contents

1. Defining the Internet of Things (10:27)
2. Unprotected devices will be attacked (13:15)
3. Encryption (15:46)
4. Single security model for all communications (17:56)
5. Access control (20:13)
6. Tracking device metadata (21:14)
7. Provisioning in the field (22:38)
8. Firmware updates in the field (24:07)
9. Compliance with regulations (25:15)
10. Reinventing the wheel (26:17)

More Resources on Securing IoT Communication

Below are a couple great pieces on IoT security, and some code tutorials for IoT developers:

• The Next Generation of IoT: PubNub CEO Todd Greene walks through the evolution of the IoT stack, and how it’s continuing to change, with security at the forefront.
• Securing the Internet of Streams: Doron Sherman discusses the need for a new approach to IoT security, built on a loosely-coupled, smarter network.
• World-class embedded security solutions ensures trust for every system design: Data security is directly linked to how exposed the cryptographic key is to being accessed by unintended parties. How to thwart? Keep the “secret key secret” locked in protected hardware devices.
• IT cloud vs. IoT cloud: Kaivan Karimi, Atmel VP and GM of Wireless Solutions, shares the top 10 factors to consider when transitioning from IT cloud to IoT cloud.
• Become a Crypto Expert by securing all the layers of IoT. Securing valuable pieces to solve your security puzzle for any stage or level of the design cycle.
• Ultra-secure Hardware-based Key Storage: CryptoAuthentication installed into the architecture of element devices with hardware-based key storage ensure that a product, consumables it uses, firmware it runs, accessories that support it, and the network nodes it connects to are not cloned, counterfeited, or tampered with.
• Complete Security for PCs and Embedded Systems: The TPM includes integrated, protected nonvolatile storage for cryptographic keys, secrets, and authorization information.
• Making EEPROMs a Safe Place for Sensitive Data: CryptoMemory chips are the world’s largest family of EEPROMs with a 64-bit embedded hardware encryption engine, four sets of nonreadable, 64-bit authentication keys, and four sets of nonreadable, 64-bit session encryption keys.